


we all still die / what will you leave behind?

by nutellamuffin



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Angst, Death, Dreams and Nightmares, POV Apollo, POV First Person, Poetry, Prompt Fic, Short One Shot, Sort Of, and im kinda proud of it ngl, apollo is a wreck, bc when is he not, i wrote this for english class, in 15 minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29834250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutellamuffin/pseuds/nutellamuffin
Summary: every night you visit me. sometimes in dreams, sometimes in nightmares.
Relationships: Apollo/Hyacinthus (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Kudos: 13





	we all still die / what will you leave behind?

**Author's Note:**

> heyyy i put this in the tags but yeah i wrote this for english class because my teacher gave us prompts and this one reminded me of these sad gays so here you go!  
> the prompt is, of course,
> 
> **every night you visit me. sometimes in dreams, sometimes in nightmares.**
> 
> by tomiadeyemi.com! apologies if that’s not where the original prompt is from, but that’s the source he gave us.  
> title is from willow tree march by the paper kites!

every night you visit me. sometimes in dreams, sometimes in nightmares.

some nights, you are reaching. your porcelain hands slip through the air as you grasp at nothing, and even though your fingertips do not reach me, i am drawn closer. i am never sure whether it is of my own accord. my sandals catch the ground, and you are reaching, reaching,  _ reaching; _ i hold out my arms to you, and you disappear.

_ (the ground swallows you as it did centuries ago. crawling up your ankles, scaling up your limbs. you do not fight it, you never have. i do not think you ever will. and when you open your mouth to bid me goodbye in some strangled sort of scream, your teeth are blood-red, and i must close my eyes. the ground spares me a violet-coloured bloom in your wake. it mocks me.) _

some nights, you are speaking. i know the language of your mouth, the foreign sounds that ring through the air. they are not any dialect that i have ever heard and yet, i know it as i know the map of your skin, the poetry of your eyes, the infinities in your smile. 

_ (you do not smile at night. you did, once, long ago. you would smile under the moon and all the stars and you would ask me what it is like to live forever. i had never known what to tell you, and i do not know now. it does not matter, because you do not ask me, not even on the nights that your words are no longer a stranger to me.) _

some nights, you are crying. your tears are like droplets of shimmering rain and you are silent, more silent than the wind when the world has gone still, more silent than the noise my heart makes, unbeating in my chest. they pool at your feet, oceans of saltwater from your honey-hazel-brown irises; and then you are drowning, and i cannot save you.

_ (your body makes no noise as it plummets into the depths of your own sorrow. i reach for you, i plunge into the darkness, flailing, searching, sinking. i have drowned in your tears almost every night for years, and yet, i do not know how to swim. i would drown a thousand times for you, and i have, and it does not make a difference.) _

some nights, you are near me. these are the dreams i speak of. you are sitting by my bedside, and you do not smile, the night forbids it; but your hand passes over my eyelids, lulling me to sleep. i do not wish to give in to slumber, to loneliness. i wish to speak to you while you are still here- for the fleeting, painful moments that linger- but you do not make a sound. 

_ (you are silent, but you are not crying. you are not reaching out to me, not as you do when you are swallowed by the ground; but your hand rests on my cheek, and you spare me a  _ **_sleep now, ήλιε μου,_ ** _ before you are gone.) _

**Author's Note:**

> "ήλιε μου” is greek for “my sun”. apologies if that’s not true, i tried my best and went through four different translators to try and make sure.


End file.
